Neocon,
Thanks for responding. But you will note that I did not even get INTO Yeltsin's performance (rather, into my personal perception of his performance) in the post-Soviet period. I really don't have time to lay out my views on that subject right now, so I will limit myself to a few comments on your response.
I don't quite buy that "regional fiefdoms" interpretation, although it is quite popular right now. I would call the system that has evolved in Russia a mixed system: a mixture of what the Russians call "mestnichestvo" ("fiefdomhood," if you will) and tight central control.
But in any event, whatever the present system is, I do not think it would have inevitably developed, or that Yeltsin is just "riding it out." The system has grown out of many decisions, including, most importantly, decisions by Yeltsin himself.
And I see no reason for presuming that without Yeltsin's "political talents", the whole situation "would have decayed even further," as you put it.
You mean, perhaps, that someone else might have launched a war in Chechnya, not just two times, but four times? (And if that isn't civil war, I don't know what is...)
Joan |
